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Cats make all kinds of sounds. Some feline vocalizations are pleasant for us, like purrs, trills and meows. Others are annoying or downright alarming, as in the case with cat yowling. So, why do cats yowl? What does cat yowling mean and more importantly, how do you get cat yowling to stop?

First, know that when your cat makes any type of sound, she is talking to you. Of course, the problem is, humans don’t technically speak cat. “They’re trying to communicate something,” says Cynthia Karsten, DVM, outreach veterinarian for the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at the University of California, Davis, School of Veterinary Medicine’s Center for Companion Animal Health. “We just have to try to figure out what that something is.”

To identify the reasons for cat yowling, act like a detective. Landing on the right answer is often a process of elimination. Consider the following reasons for cat yowling, then see if your cat might be experiencing one or more of these things.

1. Cats yowl because they’re hungry

This one is obvious, but cats do what works. A cat yowling in your face gets that food bowl refilled. Hunger is easy to rule out. If your cat has plenty of food and is still yowling, hunger is probably not the cause.

2. Cat yowling happens to get your attention

Although cats have a reputation for being aloof loners, some cats need more attention than others. If you’ve been away from home a lot lately or not playing or cuddling with your cat as much as usual, try to ramp up the attention and see if that cat yowling stops.

3. Cats yowl because they’re bored

Cats require a certain amount of enrichment in their lives. A cat yowling might be the cat’s way of expressing that she’s frustrated and bored. “It’s really hard for owners to provide an indoor-only environment that’s entertaining to cats — especially a cat that’s been outside and then is brought inside,” Dr. Karsten explains. “Some cats do fine with it, but many don’t.” If you think your cat is longing for the great outdoors, consider building or purchasing a cat enclosure so she can have safe outdoor time.

4. Cat yowling might signal a hormone issue

“When I think about yowling, the first thing that comes to my mind is breeding season,” Dr. Karsten says. “When cats are breeding, they can make really horrible noises that really disturb people, but it’s quite normal.” If your cat isn’t spayed, she might be in heat. Talk to your vet about having your cat spayed and see if that takes care of the yowling.

5. Cats yowl when they’re in pain

A cat might yowl if she’s hurting. Since cats instinctively hide their pain, almost anything could be causing it, including arthritis, an injury or an illness. “You want to rule out medical (causes), so have your vet do a full physical, including looking at bloodwork to make sure there’s nothing abnormal and checking for pain,” says Dr. Karsten, who adds that hyperthyroidism may cause irritability, which manifests in cat yowling.

6. Cat yowling could signify cognitive dysfunction

If your cat is older, cognitive dysfunction (aka cat dementia) could be behind all those cat yowling sounds. Your vet can examine your cat to determine if this might be the cause. “They start to not really understand what’s going on and then they start to vocalize,” Dr. Karsten says. “A lot of times, the yowling seems to happen at nighttime. You can try feeding them a highly digestible meal before bed so they’re not hungry, create a relaxing area for them at night, and increase environmental enrichment throughout the day so they’re tired at night.”

7. Cats yowl due to behavioral issues

“If nothing seems medically abnormal and it’s a younger animal, it could be some sort of behavioral issue going on,” Dr. Karsten says. “Keep a log of all your cat’s activities. Journal when the yowling happens and try to link it to something, some sort of trigger.” For instance, if you’ve had any changes in the household, like a new baby, a new housemate, or a recent move or divorce, your cat might be yowling out of stress or anxiety. If your cat is always yowling next to the same window, for example, maybe a stray cat outside is coming around and upsetting her.

If all that cat yowling becomes bad enough that it’s affecting your cat’s quality of life (or yours!), and you can’t identify a trigger, ask your vet for a referral to a board-certified veterinary behaviorist, who might be able to figure out the root cause of the yowling and help you work with your cat to resolve it.

Tell us: Have you ever dealt with cat yowling before? Why was your cat yowling and how did you solve the issue at play?

43 comments on “Cat Yowling — Why Do Cats Yowl and What Does It Mean?”

My 1yr old cat Cali has started yawling and i cabt figure out why? She has food all the time and water. She is not spayed. When she starts i will ask her whats wrong .. She will lay down and stop. But then randomly later it starts up again. Not always asking whats wrong helps.

I have noticed that there are certain types of toys that stress my cat and make him yowl, specially the ones with noise coming from inside. While I have tried to hide or dispose of these toys, he will occasionally find one and start yowling. Listening to him yowl made me very anxious because I felt he was in pain, and I’m happy this was not the case. However, as much as I have researched, I cannot find any information on this behavior (toys stressing cats).

We have a stray tomcat coming over to our home to eat, play and occasionally find a bed. He used to yowl sometimes in the past for no apparent reason but it was short lived and he went on his way soon enough. Over the past few days he’s started yowling all day long. Sometimes even through the night. The neighbours are pissed off because he’s just wandering the area yowling like an infant. He’s about 2 years old. I’m afraid if we don’t find a way to calm him down, they’re gonna have him sent off to an animal shelter.
We thought it was breeding season so he might be responding to a mating call. But that seems less and less likely now given how long this has been going on.

My 16 year old cat has started yowling in the hallway and sometimes seems confused or bored. His best feline friend died around 4 months ago, so I thought it was grief. I noticed he only yowls in certain areas, and sometimes he will want me to follow him, but will forget I am behind him and yowl loudly like he is startled when he notices me.

I think he is probably getting kitty dementia and is in mourning. I’m trying Pet cbd hemp oil to keep him calm, it works sometimes.

Not sure what to do and I don’t want a lot of invasive vet bills due to my cat’s age.

We have a female kitty who lived in our house before it was ours. We bought the house and brought her in and had her fixed as soon as we found out. Later she went for a tooth cleaning and extraction. The vet accidentally deafened her. She has some hearing back now. Every evening, before I go to bed, she runs the stairs yowling. She’s just getting her extra energy out. I was worried when she started doing it, but it keeps happening. Then she goes to bed with me

I have an 8-year-old neutered male “resident cat” who has had the run of the house alone his whole life. We recently adopted two kitten female sisters – maybe 10 weeks ago. He yowls often.

We introduced them to him little by little with a barrier at first, proximity feeding and playing with cat toys together. He’s come a long way. The two sisters now have free run of the house. There have been no fights – he tolerates their presence and plays with them occasionally but he still yowls several times a day. They chase each other so I know he has “fun” with them at times but his mood can go the other way and he might hiss and swipe if one gets near him. Most times he seems to just tolerate them.

I hate it that he is stressed because of our two new additions. I know why he is yowling but I don’t know what to do about it. I was hoping these kittens would bring something new and enjoyable to his life and give him more activity but it seems to have introduced stress that wasn’t there before.

Is this change in our household something he’s going to have to get used to on his own? What can I do to facilitate more harmony?

My 1 yr old cat yowls at all times. I have done absolutely everything I can to help him. I even got a new kitten. He loves her but it only keeps him occupied for so long. Me and my boyfriend would rarely sleep because of it ,it’s getting better now that he has some sort of companion. But it doesn’t keep him from yowling during the day. Whenever we’re all working he’s making ridiculous screaming noises. I’ve tried catnip,a new cat tree, changing the litter, changing his diet, changing up sleeping arrangements. And Nothing. We have three cats so we’ve officially ruled out mice or any other type of animal. And we live on a fairly busy street so we never ever see another animal. Please help.

I have same problem all night long and now day he loves going in my sons room gets bored leaves and does this yelling scream my other cat is quite and smells really nice the one that yells all time runs through house and can jump to the top of door : he really start d yelling ngalot wbout 3 weeks ago I do have my grand baby here could that trigger it ? I need help I getting no sleep at night

Mine was just doing it because he was ready to ‘get rid of’ a hairball. So heads up; if you have plastic bag on the ground and they run to it after yowling and hunch low they might not be confusing it with a litter box. BTW; I was impressed the Cat knew I’d prefer him to do this over a plastic bag than on the floor.

My 8 year old male cat yowls at night time. I’ve tried leaving my door open when I go to bed. My roommates are up all night long so there is always someone to keep him company. He’s been doing this since he had major surgery when he was six. He starts out just meowing and gets increasingly louder until he’s almost screaming. As soon as I say his name he stops for about an hour, then when I go back to sleep he starts in again. I don’t know what to do.

This sounds EXACTLY like my cat. In fact she was doing it when I was at the computer so I decided to search and found this page. and it sounded identical to her yowling. She is elderly and never used to do this but does this every time she is walking around planning to lay down somewhere to sleep. Once she lays down she stops.

My 2 year old female yowls soooo loud. The funny thing is, she only does it if we forget to close the door to the laundry room. She will go in there in the dark, hunker down on the dryer and go to town yowling.

My cat does this at night and it generally means “excuse me you forgot our 30 min petting, chin scratchin and kitty kisses time. He is now 10 years old and spent a lot of time at a family members house while I was hospitalized so now it’s an hour. Try some extra Lovins or when they are young try to make a little bit of play time in after dinner. 10 mins of Lazer chasin or feather flopping will usually do the trick

My neighbour and I have 3 spayed female cats between us – and we are continuously plagued by Toms on the property – have no idea of the owners but the present one must have an owner as he has a collar. They yowl around us and our cats are terrified of him as he attacks them if they are outside – and they are used to being outside – but now if they hear him they will not go out. What can one do about this menace!! If one Tom disappears it’s not long and there is another! My cats are 12 and 14 years old!

My Tripod could use yowling for good reasons. I was living with my mom, and one day when I was at work, mom was asleep on the couch, when all of a sudden she’s awakened by this scary yowling noise. She looked for the source, and there was Tripod, like “Now that you’re awake, Grandma, how about feeding me?” Scared the daylights out of mom!

I have a sixteen year old tabby cat and about five years ago he started to yowl whenever he would grab a pen if I left one out. So I put in a drawer but he must have watched me and figured out how to open it cause I caught him doing it. He normally does this at night after I have gone upstairs to bed so when he starts I know he has something and I come down or sometimes he brings it to me and I pick it up and that is the end of the yowling. He will also pick up small bottles like nail polish or hand creme etc. I thought maybe he thought he caught something when he does this.

When my now 8-year-old cat was a kitten she suddenly started the loudest “fire alarm” yowl while racing around the living room. It was quite shocking. She finally stopped and barfed. Then she was fine. Over the years her yowl has been my alert to get her off the carpet and onto the tile floor.

I have a 13 year old Maine Coon, who is an awesome cat. So good and so loving. In the past 6 months I have noticed that he “loses us” at times. He will eat his breakfast, nap in the sun a bit and then he will yowl in almost a ‘questioning’ sort of way. We answer back to him from upstairs or the basement and he comes running and seems just happy to ‘find’ us again. He is getting older, so I think he is getting forgetful. Never seems to forget where the treats are hidden, though!

I have 2 cats and they seem to howl for 2 main reasons, 1) they are about to hack up a big fat hair ball (we call it the sound alarm to get them to tiled floor/OFF the carpet!) and 2) to let us know that someone has closed the door to their litter box ! ( another alarm of sorts! Lol!) Of course they also on occasion yowl during “ sporadic spazz” time, like they are exclaiming, “ That sure was some great Kitty Crack ! Whoopee!”

My cat is extremely loud at almost all hours of the day but it is starting to kill me at night, he walks around meowing/yowling and annoying the neighbors and my roomates so I keep him in my room at night. He claws the doors and yowls for hours with no end. I have tried ignoring him, spraying him, buying him expensive hormonal cat callers, melatonin, using cat nip, and nothing seems to work. he has done this sort of thing since he was little and I literally got kicked out of my house because I wouldn’t get rid of him. He’s 2 and a Siamese mix, I know they are suppose to be loud but I have never experienced a cat like him and the lack of sleep may finally be enough to make me give up. Not only is he loud but he runs around like a maniac opening and closing cupboards and meowing at every door the second it closes or runing into different rooms meowing for absolutely no reason.

I have a female cat thats under 1 yr old. Shes about 10 mos old. She was in heat, so the constant howling stopped my procrastinating & I made an appt to get her spayed. Also, let me mention that she has 3 mos old kittens who still nurse. It remind me of that meme I seen about when you’re 30 & still live at home…This adult cat was still nursing.
Got her fixed & she is still doing it. I’m not sure why, but she starts late at night. I think shes calling her kittens. Even tho they’re big babies, they still come when she calls & if they don’t she will try to`

Wow, my kitty Luna does the exact same thing! She opens the cupboard door and yowls when it slams shut and then runs into the living room meowing so loudly. I thought she was the only cat that does this, so I’m happy that I’m not alone with this behavior. I don’t know why she does this, it’s very strange. I’m thinking it could be her age now that I’ve read this article, she is 14. I’m definitely going to mention it when I take her for her next check up.

In our case it’s probably hyperthyroidism. Basically the cat doesn’t know if it’s really truly hungry, thirsty or what. To top it off we have another cat that will eat everything so we can’t leave food out.
Our solution was to make a spare room into a cat room. It has food, water litter and climate control. We put her in there at bedtime with a full dish of food. Out she comes at breakfast time. She doesn’t keep us up and seems to really like the Royal treatmeny

I think the cat in video #3 was saying, “Hey! Look! I caught a mouse for you, human. Human! Where are you?!? Come see what I brought you!” This is very similar to what one of my cats does when she brings me her mouse toy. She’s proud of her quarry!

My cats yowl when in “hunting mode”. They start howling and I respond “bring me your mouse”, then duly praise them for their magnificent hunting skills. It’s a game, usually in the evening before bedtime..